Runic employee speaks about Torchlight sales figures

[Skott]

I don't really know anything about Torchlight, although this thread will get me to look into it, I'm the type that doesn't really care for multiplayer games. MP can most certainly extend the life of a game but IMO it's not always necessary for a game today to have MP to make it big. Plenty of games never had a MP option and plenty more in the future won't have it. Just my opinion anyway.

 

[tviceman]

Umm, no. Some of us just don't like playing with idiots, or have friends who don't have gaming PC's to play multiplayer with. I refuse to play multiplayer with anyone I don't know nowadays. Trust me, I'm in no way "not that clued up on gaming."

This is the exact position I am in and how I feel.

 

[Skott]

Okay, I read the FAQ about Torchlight and then went to Youtube and watched some gameplay videos of the three classes. I can see where people would call it a Diablo knock off. It is made by those who made Diablo afterall. A dungeon crawler? Sure, not that thats a bad thing unless you hate dungeon crawler games. On a quick glance it looks like it would be fun if you enjoy games of this type of theme. Is it as good as the Diablo series? I don't know. Probably not but I doubt its a bad game either but I can't say for certain. It won't be as famous as Diablo undoubtedly but that doesn't make it a bad game. My guess it'll land somewhere around averagely good. Just my opinion after a quick glance at it.


Edit: The low minimum system requirements will appeal to a wide spectrum of PC users. Many notebook users will find it playable on their rigs I'm thinking. The minimum CPU requirement is not high nor is the GPU. Not sure if the commonly used 4500MHD will run it though.


Edit2: It looks like the 4500MHD will run it. From the website FAQ:

Q: What are the minimum system requirements?
A: The PC version will require Windows XP or later, x86-compatible 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 400MB Hard Drive space, DirectX-compatible 3D graphics with at least 64MB of addressable memory (such as an ATI Radeon 7200, NVIDIA GeForce 2, or Intel GMA 950). An internet connection is required to activate your installation.

The requirements are so low, we are even able to play Torchlight on the netbooks around the office!




I might get it and see how well it runs on my Toshiba A505-S6980 notebook.

 

[Dumac]

I don't really know anything about Torchlight, although this thread will get me to look into it, I'm the type that doesn't really care for multiplayer games. MP can most certainly extend the life of a game but IMO it's not always necessary for a game today to have MP to make it big. Plenty of games never had a MP option and plenty more in the future won't have it. Just my opinion anyway.

No one is saying that.

The thing is that this is a game that would benefit GREATLY from multiplayer, just as Diablo did. Multiplayer would give this game life.

The developers probably know this, which is why they are (supposedly) making a multiplayer version with the SP version as the base.

 

[VashHT]

It's here at the steam forums:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1038396

A user by the name BrockDiesel claims to be a Runic employee posts a few times in that thread, and in reference to "hundreds of thousands sold" he says that although Torchlight is selling well, it's not selling that well.

Let me preface everything I'm saying with this: Yes, I'm aware that official sales figures have not been released and thus I have no idea how it's doing other than not "hundreds of thousands sold."

I know the game has only seen a digital release thus far, and it's getting the retail treatment in January, but I think much of this goes to show that digital sales likely aren't as high as everyone (including myself) likes to think they are. With everything going for it, the incredibly low initial price of $20, extremely low system requirements, decent reviews, great word of mouth, and overall community enthusiasm for the game, if the guy really is an employee of Runic and is telling the truth, it's both disheartening and disappointing.

I hope this continues to stay in the top ten at various digital outlets and I really hope it does well at retail. I know hack n' slash games aren't for everyone (not a huge fan myself) but this is a highly polished, fun game with lots of replayability and definitely at a price point that is more than worth it's dollar value.

I don't see why this would surprise or dishearten you. This is a really small game made by a small dev with almost no marketing outside of steam, were you really expecting it to sell hundreds of thousands of copies? Add to that what everyone else is pointing out, this game uses diablo's gameplay but w/o MP, which was the biggest thing about diablo. I'm not sure why you'd be surprised if this hasn't sold hundreds of thousands of copies, that simply doesn't happen nowadays without a huge ad campaign and hype machine to back up your game. I wouldn't really worry about it if I were you either, since there is no MP it's not like you have to worry about the community dying for it or something.

I'm not saying it's a bad game or anything, but it's certainly a niche game considering it's lack of MP, so I'm wondering why anyone would even think a game like this would be selling hundreds of thousands of copies, and I doubt the devs ever expected it to either.

 

[exar333]

I am in the group that much prefers single-player games, but I have to agree that this would definitely sell better with MP. You can make a great Hack'n'slash without MP, but that's what a lot of people get it for. It has to (1) have fresh gameplay (2) deep story or (3) be very addictive to be a "hit" with SP only. Think Puzzle Quest or Baldurs Gate.

 

[skace]

Look, although multiplayer would have helped it a lot. It's also worth noting that TorchLight, to me, looks and feels like a budget title. It's a good time waster, like Fate was, but also like Fate, I don't expect it to be hugely popular. Each dungeon is not unique enough (I've gone through several template duplicates already), the skills aren't that well thought out, the classes are limited, the graphics aren't that great, and most importantly for a single player game, the world does nothing to enthrall me or keep me interested. I'm simply playing to appease my monty haul desire, nothing more.

Having said that, it's well made, but I think there are plenty of reasons why they shouldn't expect this game to be a blockbuster.

 

[Skott]

I bought it off of Steam for $20. Not a bad price. I was considering seeing if Diablo would install on my new laptop (A505-S6980 16" notebook, T6600 cpu, 4GB RAM, 4500MHD GPU, W7) just as something to pass the time when things are slow. Torchlight is newer and fits the bill since my laptop is not made for gaming and the price is reasonable in the world of $50 games. I havent played it too long but its fun so far but we'll see how it is once I have 10-20 hours into it. See if boredom sets in or not.

 

[ViviTheMage]

no mp no buy!

 

[sourceninja]

I never heard of the game before this thread. That means their marketing sucks.

 

[Elcs]

I never heard of the game before this thread. That means their marketing sucks.

I am surprised people missed it.

We had a huge Torchlight Thread here on Anandtech...

It was heavily advertised via Steam...

I could not miss it!

 

[Sho'Nuff]

I bought Torchlight, and have really enjoyed it.

That said, it is essentially "Fate" remastered with shiiny WoW style graphics. Thus, it is at least probable that the soft sales are resulting from the fact that many FATE players who tried the demo decided not to purchase what is essentially the exact same game.

 

[you2]

Yea it is basically Fate (Did anyone noticed that the manual with the game calls it Fate )
--
It was kind of boring as fate was; finished it after 3 or 4 days and moved on. if I'm going to play a game like this I much rather play Titan Quest (though it has been close to 18 months since I played it as better stuff is available right now).

 

[tviceman]

I don't see why this would surprise or dishearten you. This is a really small game made by a small dev with almost no marketing outside of steam, were you really expecting it to sell hundreds of thousands of copies? Add to that what everyone else is pointing out, this game uses diablo's gameplay but w/o MP, which was the biggest thing about diablo. I'm not sure why you'd be surprised if this hasn't sold hundreds of thousands of copies, that simply doesn't happen nowadays without a huge ad campaign and hype machine to back up your game. I wouldn't really worry about it if I were you either, since there is no MP it's not like you have to worry about the community dying for it or something.

I'm not saying it's a bad game or anything, but it's certainly a niche game considering it's lack of MP, so I'm wondering why anyone would even think a game like this would be selling hundreds of thousands of copies, and I doubt the devs ever expected it to either.

I wasn't so much disheartened that Torchlight itself isn't selling "hundreds of thousands" of digital copies as I am that it clearly shows that people think Steam, D2D, Impulse, etc. aren't selling as much 3rd party games (Games not made by Valve or Stardock) as we all would like to believe.

Torchlight has been in the top 10 in steam's top sellers list everyday since the game was released (except during the thanksgiving weekend sale). Given that Steam's top 10 sellers are always based on revenue and NOT actual sales figures, that means if Torchlight is #5 on the list, and #6 is Boderlands selling for $49.99, Torchlight is selling more than 2 1/2 units every day than Boderlands.

So logic would think that the game is selling quite a few units (at least on Steam). And while it may be selling quite a few units relative to other games, it's not nearly as much as I, or other people would like to believe.

All in all, I don't think Steam and other services are moving 3rd party games quite as well as we all think.